Of Paradise and Power

US: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. Hardback. Very Good/Very Good. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. From a leading scholar of our country?fs foreign policy, the brilliant essa y about America and the world that has caused a storm in international circ les now expanded into book form. European leaders, increasingly disturbed by U.S. policy and actions abroad, feel they are headed for what the New York Times (July 21, 2002) describes as a ?gmoment of truth.?h After years of mutual resentment and tension, th ere is a sudden recognition that the real interests of America and its alli es are diverging sharply and that the trans-atlantic relationship itself ha s changed, possibly irreversibly. Europe sees the United States as high-han ded, unilateralist, and unnecessarily belligerent; the United States sees E urope as spent, unserious, and weak. The anger and mistrust on both sides a re hardening into incomprehension. This past summer, inPolicy Review, Robert Kagan reached incisively into this impasse to force both sides to see themselves through the eyes of the other. Tracing the widely differing histories of Europe and America since the end of World War II, he makes clear how for one the need to escape a bloody past has led to a new set of transnational beliefs about power and threat, while the other has perforce evolved into the guarantor of that ?gpostmodern paradise?h by dint of its might and global reach. This remarkable analysis is being discussed from Washington to Paris to Tokyo. It is esssential reading.